The last of this spring season's "Eat and Meet" dinners will be held on June 16th. Longer established and newer members and friends of North Unitarian Universalist Congregation are looking forward to good food and conversation! I will plan more getting-acquainted opportunities as the year progresses.

Also, NUUC's Women's Group has decided to look at Naomi Alderman's novel Disobedience, which now is also a movie. We will not meet in June, but starting in July, we'll start discussing this book, interspersing those talks with explorations of related women's issues. This group is open to anyone identifying as a female. Please feel welcome to attend!

Stay tuned for additional opportunities. If you have an idea for an Adult Enrichment class or discussion contact Marty Keith at martykeith@zoho.com

Explore Art with NUUC member Melinda Rosenberg

Join Melinda as she leads a discussion about her art, answering questions and shedding insight related to her current work. Melinda is one of six artists exhibiting in the Greater Columbus Art Council Visual Arts Award Exhibition, at the Columbus Museum of Art through August 26. This body of word is inspired by her artist residency in Dresden, Germany, and out currently politically divisive climate. Meet at 1 PM, Sunday June 3 at the Columbus Museum of Art (the museum is free on Sundays) Sign up online

This month at NUUC appears to be a quiet one. But don't let the quiet fool you. Our architect and construction company are busy creating and pricing options for our congregation to view sometime this summer. We hope to release these in July with the Feasability Study with Barry Finklestein in August. Be sure to check your emails through the summer months for information as we get it. The website will also continue to keep you apprised of the process past and present and any upcoming firm dates we have as we get them. And as always you an contact us at nuucsteering.com anytime with questions. We will get back to you promptly.

This continues to be an exciting time for our congregation. And we look forward to what is to come!

Respectfully submitted, The Steering Committee

Allison Fagan, Chair

Teri Cornell Christine Jones-Leavy

Dick Leavy Rod Myers

Lauren Richards John Rodeheffer

Social Justice News

SAFE AND HEALTHY OHIO - WEEK OF ACTION: A TIME OF CANVASSING, FELLOWSHIP AND JUSTICE! JUNE 10-17, 2018. In 2018, Ohio holds center stage in the national effort to win criminal justice reform with the introduction of Ohio's Safe and Healthy ballot initiative. Passing the ballot initiative will retroactively reduce drug possession felony convictions to misdemeanors, freeing thousands of people currently in jail, preventing recidivism through parole reform, and decriminalizing drug possession so that no more people will be warehoused in the name of the war on drugs. Funds saved on incarceration will go to provide rehabilitation and addiction treatment. Ohio needs us to put our faith into action and get this initiative on the ballot so we can dismantle mass incarceration! The week of June 10-17 is our CALL TO ACTION!

In order to qualify this initiative for the November ballot, we need to collect more than 300,000 valid signatures from voters in at least 44 of Ohio's 88 counties. Our deadline is July 4. We are on our way but still need 15,000 more signatures by July 1st. During the week of June 10-17, 100 out-of-state UUs and other allies will meet in Columbus and join in-state teams to close out the ring counties bordering Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, Akron, and Cleveland. We will kick-off with a Training Praxis: political education on talking points and how to canvass THEN volunteers will deploy for six days of canvassing in the ring counties. Whether you can come for the whole week or just one day your help is needed and deeply appreciated.

For five days during the Week of Action, we will train volunteers together before canvasses on nonviolent direct action and centering practices in preparation for collecting signatures in the most socially and politically segregated counties in the state.

In addition to canvassing, we need people to do data verification, making sure that people who sign are registered voters.

We'll finish the week off with two days of signature collection at Columbus's Pride Festival, an event that typically draws close to 1,000,000 people.

If you live in Columbus and could offer someone homestay for the week or just a few nights, please contact Rev. Joan Van Becelaere - uujoanvanb@gmail.com (303-641-5896)

THIS MONTH'S LOOSE CHANGE OFFERING WILL GO TO THE POOR PEOPLE'S CAMPAIGN

OHIO POOR PEOPLE'S CAMPAIGN: A NATIONAL CALL FOR MORAL ACTION - Fifty years ago, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King called for a Poor People's Campaign to begin a "revolution of values" in America. We are reigniting these efforts to unite the poor, disenfranchised, and marginalized to transform our nation's political, economic and moral structures of our society.

The Unitarian Universalist Association is an official endorser and faith partner of the Campaign.

About the Campaign

The goal of the Poor People's Campaign is to build powerful state-based coalitions that can generate a moral movement across the country, shift the distorted national narrative of who and what matters with prophetic truth-telling and direct action, and ultimately transform the political, economic, and moral structures of our society. The campaign has an intersectional lens, addressing the plight of over 45 million people in the US who live in poverty, (and 100 million more who struggle economically) and confronting white supremacy, environmental destruction, voter suppression, mass incarceration and deportation, and militarism.

An escalated response to the extreme times we are living is needed-coordinated non-violent moral fusion direct action for 40 days of over 38,000 people of faith and conscience in 38 state capitals and in Washington, DC-with a set of demands that cannot be ignored.

Following the season of action, massive voter registration and Get-Out-the Vote drives will be organized through the mid-term elections. Specific national and state organizing campaigns will come together in 2019.

40 Days of Action from May 13 - June 23

Every Monday, beginning on May 14th through June 18th there will be witness as well as non-violent direct moral fusion direct action in 38 states and in Washington, DC.

Mondays - will feature a rally or direct action event at the Ohio Statehouse.at 2 pm

Tuesdays - there will be evening Teach-Ins. Information will be sent out on the Poor People's Campaign email list.

Thursdays - a cultural event(s) will be scheduled

Sundays - evening mass rallies will be live-streamed. We are urged to gather to watch in groups.

For more information, go to the UU Justice Ohio website or Facebook page.

INTERFAITH ASSOCIATION OF CENTRAL OHIO (IACO) Helping Central Ohio Homeless: Join representatives from other faith communities to help serve meals at the Van Buren Shelter, 595 Van Buren Drive, Columbus, 43223, from 5:15 PM (introduction and tour) to 7:45 PM on Sunday, June 24th. If you are interested in joining the other IACO members who are volunteering, please contact Gwyn Stetler at gwyn.stetler@ymcacolumbus.org. For more information, see the SAC bulletin board or ask Pam Patsch.